The use of protective headgears is growing in popularity as a larger percentage of the population make a conscious decision to use protective headgears for a variety of activities. These protective headgears are used in construction and firefighting, recreational activities including cycling, skateboarding and in-line skating, as well as in motorized transportation. Many of these activities may be carried out at night or in low light conditions such that illumination would be advantageous.
There have been attempts to develop illuminated headgears in the industrial and recreational fields including use on motorized vehicles. However such headgears have been limited to use of incandescent lamps, electrolumincent light strips and recently to use of small light emitting elements as light emitting diodes (LEDs).
Ippoliti et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,319,308, discloses a motorcycle helmet which makes use of LEDs to direct light between two thin shells of a curvilinear profile such that characters, such as alphabet letters are illuminated on the side of the helmet. The light sources are located in the bottom of the helmet to direct light upward and generally parallel to the thin shells, with light being reflected between the shells due to the curvilinear profile of the shells.
Mantha et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,621, shows a helmet with illuminated translucent lenses in the front and back of the helmet.
Vega et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,464,369, describes a helmet in which a channel is molded into the outer shell. A light source is then mounted into this outer shell channel and secured with a translucent lens.
Numerous other illuminated headgears have made use of the helmets protective core to embed or place the LEDs into or onto, distributing the light produced by these LED's through various windows placed in the helmets protective shell. However, there is the distinct danger of these LEDs penetrating the inner protective core, causing injury to the user during an impact.
Chien, U.S. Pat. No. 5,871,271, shows a cycling helmet with hard shell outer layer and a protective shock absorbing layer in which LEDs in star shapes and other shapes are proposed to be mounted on circuit boards that fit within recesses in the helmets core. In one embodiment, the LEDs are placed inside enclosures with opaque and translucent portions to form illuminated star shapes. These shapes are quite small and intended to impart a shape to an individual LED element.
Kutnyak, U.S. Pat. No. 7,121,676, shows how illuminated light panels are incorporated within shallow cavities of the headgears inner core. When energized, these illuminated light panels show graphical images through sections of the outer shell.
Nally et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,128,434, describes an illuminated helmet in which conventional single element LEDs are embedded in cavities within the inner protective core. When these LEDs are energized by a motion activated mechanism, they illuminate small portions of the outer shell containing graphics, in relationship with the angle of light emitted by the conventional single element LEDs.
Still, other prior patents show various types of illuminated headgears. Although each type of illumination has their advantages and disadvantages, they are for the most part non-cost effective, difficult to produce and not very eye-appealing to the consumer.
Another technical problem in providing illuminated headgears is retaining the strength of the helmet to impacts. Thus, the lighting assemblies should not result in a weakening of the inner or exterior structures of the headgear or a substantial lessening of the headgear's ability to absorb and distribute energy due to an impact.